In many cases, movable barriers such as garage doors may need to be manually operated by a driver of a vehicle as the vehicle is arriving towards a barrier or departing away from the barrier. In some cases when the vehicle is arriving towards the barrier the driver has to time when to manually actuate the opening of the barrier. As it may take a significant time to move the barrier from one state to another (e.g., closed to open), the driver may be forced to wait until the barrier is fully opened before parking the vehicle. In particular, the vehicle may arrive in front of the barrier with it having only partially completing its opening cycle. Consequently, the vehicle driver must completely stop the vehicle and wait for the movable barrier to completely open thereby wasting time and fuel/energy.
In some cases, as the vehicle departs away from the barrier, the driver may not be fully aware that the barrier has fully closed before driving away from the barrier. In such cases, the driver may notice that the barrier is being closed, however, may not wait to see if the barrier fully traverses to a fully closed state. Consequently, there is a risk that unbeknownst to the driver the barrier may not fully close based on the presence of a physical obstruction or a mechanical or environmental condition.
In additional cases, the driver may provide an input to manually close the barrier as the vehicle is quickly driven away from the location at which the barrier is located. Consequently, there is a risk that a signal sent to close the barrier never reaches a controller associated with the barrier. For example, the vehicle may be driven away from the home location at a high rate of speed outside of a range capable of sending a movable barrier signal to close the barrier when the driver provides the input to manually close the barrier. Additionally, it may be undesirable for the driver to estimate at which point the vehicle is within a range to send the movable barrier signal to open or close the movable barrier as the vehicle is arriving towards or departing away from the barrier.